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WORLD

Reforms fail to protect migrant workers from abuse

Foreign staff at UK hospitals urged to take English language courses

EAST ASIA

CHINA

• New generation of migrant workers have different goals

• Better social services for migrant workers

• New enrollment policy for the children of migrant workers in Beijing

• Rising cases of contract violations noted

• Migrant workers vulnerable to black lung disease

• Foreign workers finding jobs in China’s delta factories

JAPAN

• Japan urged to protect the rights of migrants

• Japan’s public schools daunting to migrant children

• Language difficulties proving to be a barrier for foreign nurse in Japan

MACAU SAR

• Macau denies giving go signal to hire foreign workers

SOUTH KOREA

• Reduced quota for ethnic Korean workers

• 10,000 foreign students breached visa requirements

• Immigration law amended to allow dual citizenship

• Fingerprint checks to start in August

• Foreigners push for extension of tax privileges

• South Korean ship hijacked in Somali waters

TAIWAN

• Rights groups oppose proposal to remove minimum wage for foreign workers

• CLA notes rapid growth in number of foreign caregivers in Taiwan

• CLA to relax foreign worker regulations

• Construction projects cannot hire foreign workers

• 15 Vietnamese undocumented migrants nabbed

• Indonesia asked to help find missing Taiwanese fishing vessel

• ECFA will not result in job loss

• Chinese workers arrive in Taiwan under new fishing crew agreement

• Taiwanese suspected of trafficking in Costa Rica

   

  CENTRAL ASIA

Kazakhstan

• 270 expat workers face deportation in Kazakhstan

SOUTH ASIA

BANGLADESH

• Overseas deployment of Bangladeshi workers declines

• Recruitment agencies urged to cut migration costs

• Stranded Bangladeshi seafarers appeal for help

• Bangladesh refuses to register undocumented Burmese migrants as refugees

INDIA

• Govt urged to curb exploitation of migrant workers

• Advisory issued for Malaysia-bound migrant workers

• Remittances rise despite global financial slump

• Project to upgrade immigration services underway

• Govt mulls introduction of special project visa

• Police nab 3 men for human trafficking

• Sri Lankan refugees nabbed

NEPAL

• More workers leaving for overseas employment

PAKISTAN

• Govt urged to check irregular migration into Pakistan

•  Human trafficking still a problem in Pakistan

• Iran deports 50 undocumented Pakistanis

• Rising trend in remittances

• 41 IDPs killed in attacks at Kohat refugee camp

SRI LANKA

• Australia’s new asylum policy expected to discourage Tamil refugees

• New measures to combat human trafficking

• 24 Sri Lankan fishermen released

PACIFIC

AUSTRALIA

• Australia freezes processing of asylum claims from Afghans, Sri Lankans

• Christmas Island facilities stretched to accommodate more new arrivals

• 40 Tamil asylum seekers in Merak stand-off now in Australia

• Coalition backtracks on proposed immigration cut

NEW ZEALAND

• Pro-migrant groups slam new visa policy

• Migrants are good workers: survey

• Kiwi migration to Australia rising anew

SOUTHEAST ASIA

BRUNEI

• Immigration violators nabbed

• OFWs urged to vote

CAMBODIA

• Govt ban on marriages between Cambodian women and South Korean men lifted

INDONESIA

• Indonesia ends with Sri Lankan asylum seekers

• Indonesia prevents over 100 Afghans from heading to Australia

• Australia to resettle refugees stranded in Indonesia

• Indonesian workers go on rampage due to verbal abuse

• 13 Indonesians rescued from modern slavery in Costa Rica

• Music concerts to be used in campaign against human trafficking

• Remittances in 2009 reach Rp100 trillion

• Training fee to be scrapped

MALAYSIA

• Cap on foreign workers eyed

• Employers keeping passports, workers with expired permits to be punished   

• Lower recruitment costs seen as solution to domestic worker row

• Plan to curb trafficking

• Asylum-seekers, unauthorized migrants, suspected syndicate nabbed

PHILIPPINES

• Remittances up by seven percent in February

• Overseas voter turnout low

• China-Taiwan pact could displace Filipino workers

• OFWs repatriated from Taiwan, UAE due to crisis

• Distressed repatriated from Middle East

• Seafarers hijacked, rescued

• Arroyo to plead for two Filipinos on death row

• Top airport official probed for human smuggling

• Teachers win lawsuit, US$1.8 million

SINGAPORE

• Groups deplore rising cases of illegal deployment of foreign workers

THAILAND

• 54 Burmese irregular migrants suffocated to death

VIETNAM

• Migrant worker deployment

• New regulation to require expat workers to obtain work permits

MIDDLE EAST

Call to protect migrant workers

AFGHANISTAN

• 50 Afghan irregular migrants nabbed in Romania

BAHRAIN

• No minimum wage policy for migrant workers in Bahrain

• Irregular migrant workers nabbed in crackdown

• Bahrain committed to combat human trafficking

ISRAEL

•  New deportation order vs. West Bank “infiltrators”

JORDAN

• Jordan closely monitoring West Bank expulsions

• Report lauds Jordan’s efforts to protect migrant domestic workers

KUWAIT

• Kuwait vows to pursue labor market reforms

• Migrant workers face deportation

LEBANON

• Campaign to promote migrant domestic workers’ rights

OMAN

• Oman has more than 1 M foreign worker

• Amnesty period extended

• Asian visa ring busted in police raid

QATAR

• New law allows expat women to sponsor their families

• Cancellation of visa-on-arrival privilege postponed

• Qatar to start crackdown vs. errant firms

• Significant rise in number of OFWs in Qatar

• 70% of Filipina domestic workers in the Middle East are undocumented

• Qatar to set up skills training center in Nepal

SAUDI ARABIA

• 400 Filipino workers to be repatriated

• Yemeni kids being forced to beg

UAE

• Employers asked to protect workers’ rights

• 1094 runaway domestic workers nabbed in raids

• Immigration violators arrested in Dubai

• Warning to errant companies, workers

• Indian laborers stranded in Sharjah

• New anti-trafficking panel formed